Talk of jarring cuts to domestic programs within President Donald Trump's budget plan has Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration in a defensive crouch, worried that millions of dollars in federal financing spent each year in New Orleans could evaporate by October -- the start of the next federal fiscal year.

Glimpses of draft budget memos and conservative policy papers that have circulated in recent weeks show the White House is considering across-the-board cuts to housing and public safety programs to partly offset Trump's promises to build a wall on the Mexico border and inject another $54 billion into the national defense budget.

"I don't think local governments have seen this type of thing come out of Washington before, period," said Ryan Berni, Landrieu's deputy mayor for external affairs.

The first budget proposal of Trump's presidency, which he is expected to unveil Thursday morning (March 16), will send bright signals about his chief priorities. New Orleans officials may be white-knuckling its rollout, but its impact is likely to radiate across Louisiana, a state left especially vulnerable as lawmakers grapple with a $304 million fiscal hole left over from Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration.

"It isn't just 'New Orleans is going to take a cut and Mayor Landrieu is upset about it,'" said Zach Butterworth, Landrieu's executive counsel and congressional liaison. "We are ringing a bell for the state right now."

At its core, the Trump budget is expected to emphasize a conservative philosophy that views housing, public safety and social services as issues best left out of the federal government's list of responsibilities.

"Is that something the federal government should be paying for when we're in this time of huge deficits and debt levels, or is that something we should be passing back to the states?" asked Justin Posey, senior policy analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation.

In February, Heritage published a policy paper detailing its viewpoint on federal spending and calling for the wholesale elimination of dozens of domestic programs. That blueprint, along with leaked White House budget memos, have prodded the Landrieu administration to sound the alarm, city officials said.

Posey, however, urged patience, pointing out that Congress, not the president, ultimately makes the federal government's financial decisions. Additionally, any appropriations bill will need 60 votes in the Senate to avoid a filibuster. Republicans currently hold a narrow majority with 52 seats in the upper chamber.

"There's going to have to be some kind of agreement with Democrats to see a lot of these things through," Posey said.

For New Orleans, Trump's proposal could push for an abrupt halt to decades of spending on programs that encourage affordable housing, shelter the homeless, fight blight and support senior centers and the city's recreation department, officials warned.

Despite Trump's posturing during the campaign as a "law and order" candidate, possible cuts could also upend community policing measures, district attorneys' abilities to prosecute rape and domestic violence cases, and other public safety initiatives in a poor and violent city.

The elimination of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's community development block grant program, which sent almost $11.3 million to New Orleans last year, is a chief concern of the Landrieu administration. The city uses that money annually to finance affordable housing measures, find shelter and permanent housing for homeless people and subsidize summer camps and jobs for teenagers and young adults living in New Orleans. It has also been a funding source for Landrieu's anti-blight program and for housing people with HIV or AIDS.

The city has relied on another $2 million under the HOME Investment Partnerships program to build 1,627 affordable rental units since 2010 and help 956 low-income families in that time work toward homeowners, Landrieu administration officials said.

Both programs are part of a $6 billion cut to HUD that Trump is considering, according to the Washington Post.

"Everyone is going to take a major cut, but certainly a poorer city like the city of New Orleans is going to be detrimentally impacted," Berni said.

Those HUD funds do not include the $3.7 million a year sent through the Justice Department to pay for citywide public safety programs. Those, too, could face Trump's budgetary knife.

The New Orleans Police Department spends about $1.6 million a year for nine officers through the federal Community Oriented Policing Services Program. Other grants pay for new body cameras for officers, and work to eliminate backlogs of untested rape kits and DNA cases. There is federal money available to pay for sex crime investigations, youth advocacy programs and grief counseling for victims and families, among other services.

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office relies on roughly $200,000 a year under three federal grants. At risk could be a tranche of that, provided under the Violence Against Women Act, used to pay for a prosecutor dedicated to domestic violence cases and a counselor for victims and witnesses. Still smarting over the City Council's decision to cut $600,000 from Cannizzaro's 2017 budget, anything more would be "devastating," DA spokesman Chris Bowman said.

"Following the cuts to the District Attorney's Office by the mayor and the City Council, we have tightened our belt as much as we can tighten it," Bowman said.

There is less fear that Trump's budget proposal would jeopardize large infrastructure and development agreements the Landrieu administration struck with Trump's predecessor, including the $2.1 billion settlement with FEMA to rebuild city streets and roads damaged by the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.

Future public transportation grant programs that were popular during the Obama administration could also be eliminated. The New Orleans RTA relied on those to build the Loyola Avenue streetcar line and has secured promises of $15 million toward a new Canal Street ferry terminal and another $15.2 million through the state Department of Transportation and Development to build two Mississippi River ferries.

Pulling back these grants is unlikely, but that didn't prevent a vigil in City Hall on Wednesday as officials await for details to emerge.

"If they're coming after folks this aggressively, they can try anything," Butterworth said.